4 Proactive Ways Job Seekers Should Use Twitter

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If you’re a job seeker, don’t use Twitter to retweet a Kardashian
or favorite something equally criminal. Twitter offers much more
than snarky trends and celebrity gossip. The platform is
actually full of thousands of job posts, rich learning
resources, top-notch professionals in
your field and much more.

With such a smorgasbord of career advancement opportunities,
there are many ways you can use Twitter in order to supercharge
your job search experience. Here are four of those ways:

1. Learn

Using Twitter to find and digest the best content from your field
will keep your mind sharp come interview time. It doesn’t
matter how niche your field is, either. Industry experts,
companies and news sites all tweet the latest happenings by the
minute. Use this unemployment time to stay fully immersed
in the field(s) you’re hoping to snag a job in.

The best way to do this is by creating or following Twitter
lists. These lists should contain professionals, companies and
news sites with the best content in your industry. Reading about
these happenings keeps your morale up and gets you excited about
job prospects—not to mention that learning is also essential to
your professional growth.

2. Internal recon

Lists are also a great way to stalk (oops, I mean “search”) companies you’re
interested in applying to. By adding companies to a list, you can
get an overview of company happenings and corporate announcements
via Twitter. Knowing those details can earn you major
brownie points if they come up during interview time.

Don’t be shy about adding employees to your lists, either.
Seriously, though it sounds creepy, following employees gives you
an inside glimpse into the problems that are critical to a
company’s agenda (if the user regularly tweets about his/her work
life). Use this insight to craft your resume accordingly or
prepare for interviews. Don’t forget that private Twitter lists
are viewable only by you.

3. Job hunting

It’s astonishing how many job openings are announced via Twitter.
To find these, use hashtags and keywords to
search relevant job posts in your field. Here are a few popular
hashtags to get you started:

Combine these hashtags with more specific keywords that fit the
type of job you’re looking for. For example, if you’re looking to
score a marketing gig, try a search like “#Jobs” + “Marketing.”
You can also filter your results based on location through
Twitter’s advanced search. Try to narrow down your search as much
as possible to find the most relevant job openings.

4. Reputation

If you’re applying for jobs online, make no mistake:
serious recruiters and hiring managers will find
your Twitter profile. That means you might have to
adjust a few things. First, if you know that a company you’re
applying for values quirkiness, edginess or creativity in their
corporate culture, be sure to tailor your Twitter bio to match
that tone. That doesn’t mean you have to be fake. You can still
sound professional and craft an authentic profile that isn’t
completely boring or stuffy.

You should also tweet about hot topics in your field. That way,
you’ll stay actively engaged with influential professionals from
your field. Plus, this will make a positive impression on hiring
managers snooping through your tweets. You can find hot topics to
tweet about by searching relevant terms or browsing your Twitter
lists.

However, make sure your profile contains more than just retweets.
You can establish yourself as authority in your field by putting
your opinion in brackets when you find an interesting tweet you
want to share or interact with. It gives your tweeps a sense that
you’ve actually taken the time to read the article and form an
intelligent opinion.

Robert Rosales is a part of the marketing and product
development team at Businessfriend, the site where
social networking leads to productivity. Follow the latest
Businessfriend news and developments on Twitter @BUSIfriend.